In order to improve performance of an off-highway vehicle and in order to prevent damage to components of the off-highway vehicle (e.g., traction motors, choppers, and wheels) and a surface supporting the wheels (e.g., rails), loss of adhesion between wheels of the off-highway vehicle and the surface (i.e., wheel slip) is detected and corrected. Some off-highway vehicles use wheel speed sensors or traction motor revolutions per minute (rpm) sensors to determine adhesion loss by comparing the speed or rpm of each motor or wheel to one another.
Systems known in the art correct adhesion loss by reducing the output of the genset or energy source such that the power provided to all of the traction motors is reduced equally. This reduces the tractive effort of every wheel and the overall motive force provided by the vehicle. Other systems known in the art correct adhesion loss by completely shutting down the traction motor driving the slipping wheel for a predetermined period of time (e.g., 1 or 2 seconds). This allows the wheels that are not slipping to continue to provide their maximum tractive effort while eliminating wheel slip, however, it may unnecessarily reduce the tractive effort provided by the slipping wheel (i.e., over correct for the adhesion loss).